the life and times of a girl and her dog in Sacramento

The Best Laid Plans

December 7, 2009

You know how sometimes you make all these wonderful plans and then the universe kind of laughs at you?

Take for example, the idea of a Homemade Christmas with KK. Remember how I stressed about it here? And here? And actually several other places but I won’t bore you with all that linky detail? Although, note to self, I really need to add some kind of archive widget to this blog.

So guess who leaves this comment in my blog recently:

Have no guilt about the homemade gift. I started yours, got about 5% done and have not gone back to do the other 95% yet. Now I’m not as motivated as I once was, so I might just scrap the idea entirely and return to Michaels for fresh inspiration. Sigh. I’m about two seconds away from buying you a $100 Southwest giftcard and calling it a day. But really, that would be a gift more for me than you.

Yep, you guessed it. KK.

I spoke with her last night and Homemade Christmas is OFF. Woo hoo! Although I will be sending the gifts that I already managed to finish. I’ll share them on the blog after Christmas. Not that they’re darlin’-plus or anything.

You know what? I think a Southwest gift card is about the best present I could get!

Because who wouldn't want to race back across the country to see these cuties?

And then remember this post about My Christmas To-Do List? I had seven items on my list. Which really is not that much. Except that I’ve only completed 2.5 of those items, and honestly? I don’t think several of them will get finished at all. I managed to get Christmas wreaths hung on all three doors. At this point the tree is iffy. Sometimes it’s hard to muster the energy to put up a Christmas tree when I’m the only one who will enjoy it. And the window display for my neighbors? Well I did put up a wreath…

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Grinch. I love Christmas! But I’d rather spend my time and energy on things other than seasonal decor. Things like sending out Christmas cards (which still hasn’t happened) or creating homemade Christmas gifts (which, see above, isn’t as important anymore apparently, but I’m still kind of having fun with it and I cannot wait to show you this adorable birthday gift that I made for a friend’s kid, and gee isn’t this the longest paragraph enclosure ever in the history of blogging?).

Or how about my plans for this weekend with my foster kid? Saturday was jam-packed with bowling league, a concert, the abysmal Florida / Alabama football game and tree trimming.

But then this happened:

Not my picture, and perhaps slightly exaggerated, but you get the point.

Bowling league went off as planned. Followed by a completely unplanned snuggly day at home with books, movies, football and pizza. I don’t think I could have planned it better myself! Hey, does that count towards my 2010 resolution to plan to be more spontaneous?

Here’s another example: Today was going to be a long slog at work. I had a 7:30am meeting and Bible study after work from 7 – 9pm. It was such a long day that I actually scheduled a dog walker to come out and take care of Cecilia since I wouldn’t be home until after Bible study. Except that sometime early Sunday morning Cecilia woke up yelping. She was obviously in pain. All day Sunday she was having trouble walking. Today she isn’t much better. So I’m headed home at noon today for a vet appointment. I can get caught up on work tomorrow.

You can plan all you want, but when it snows, or when someone you love gets sick, all bets are off.